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MOSQUITOES

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Unfortunately, we are all too familiar with the scourge of the summer.

WHAT DO MOSQUITOES LOOK LIKE?

Mosquitoes have a pair of scaled wings, a pair of balance organs called “halters”, a slender body, and long legs.

Mosquito antennae are lined with fine hairs called antennal flagellum. Male mosquitoes have many, many more antennal flagellum than female mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes have piercing and sucking mouthparts.

Mosquito eggs are elongated, about 1/40” in length, and are dark brown or black when ready to hatch.

Mosquito larvae often called “wrigglers,” look like hairy maggots with siphons. They twist and wriggle just below the water surface.

The mosquito pupa has a comma-shaped body divisible into two distinct regions. It is lighter than water and therefore floats at the surface.

ARE MOSQUITOES DANGEROUS?

Yes. Mosquitoes are a major public health problem throughout the world, including our area.

Mosquitoes spread several diseases that affect the health of people, horses, pets, and other mammals including West Nile virus, LaCrosse encephalitis, western equine encephalitis, eastern equine encephalitis, St. Louis encephalitis, dog heartworm, Zika, and malaria.

Recently, some cases of Zika Virus have been confirmed in the US. For more information regarding Zika you can visit the Minnesota Department of Health Zika page by clicking here or visit the Center for Disease Control (CDC) at www.cdc.gov/zika.

WHY ARE MOSQUITOES IN MY YARD?

Most likely because the mosquitoes have found a suitable breeding ground.

The larval and pupal stages can be found in a variety of aquatic habitats including:

Potted plants with pans underneath that hold water

Drainage ditches with emergent vegetation

Standing water in low grassy areas

Roof gutters plugged with leaves

Trash or “spare parts” and neglected outdoor appliances

Old tires

Rain barrels

Unused or poorly maintained pools

Water-filled tree holes

Flat roofs

Boats on trailers

Birdbaths, barbecue grills, ashtrays and other small containers that hold water

Dark, poorly ventilated and humid places as well as along the edges of dense vegetation

WHAT DO MOSQUITOES EAT?

Only the females of most mosquito species feed on blood in order to develop fertile eggs.

Like humans, mosquitoes have food preferences—not all mosquito species bite humans, some prefer birds, horses, and other warm-blooded animals.

The larvae are filter feeders and feed on microorganisms, algae and organic matter in the water.

Depending on the species, mosquitoes feed during the daytime, at nighttime, and all times in-between.

WHAT IS THE LIFECYCLE OF MOSQUITOES?

Mosquitoes go through a complete metamorphosis life cycle and contain four separate and distinct stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.

At each blood meal, a mosquito female lays its eggs in or around standing water.

Mosquitoes lay eggs one at a time and the eggs float on the surface of the water. In the case of Culex and Culiseta species, the eggs are stuck together in rafts from 200- 300 eggs. A raft of eggs floats on the water and is about ¼” long and 1/8” wide. Anopheles and Aedes species do not make egg rafts but lay their eggs separately in the water.

Depending on species, female mosquitoes may lay 100 to 300 eggs at a time and may average 1,000 to 3,000 during their lifespan.

Eggs hatch within 24-48 hours. However, floodwater mosquito eggs hatch as soon as they are flooded, and can survive without water for two years or more.

Larvae molt four times in about 7-10 days. At the fourth instar, larvae reach a length of almost ½” before developing into pupae. Most larvae have siphon tubes for breathing and hang from the water surface. With the exception of Anopheles species, larvae do not have a siphon and lay parallel to the water surface to get a supply of oxygen through a breathing opening.

Mosquito pupae do not feed. They float at the surface of the water, but they are mobile and use a tumbling motion to escape predation or when disturbed. A pupa takes oxygen through two breathing tubes called "trumpets." Pupa stage lasts 24-48 hours.

The newly emerging mosquito has to rest on the surface of the water for a few minutes to dry its wings before it can fly away.

Generally male mosquitoes emerge a few days before female mosquitoes. This gives the males a chance to mature before the females emerge. The males then use their feathery antennae to hear the wings of the newly emerged females. Each mosquito species has a different sound to its wings so the males can find females of the same species. After they mate the female will look for a blood meal to obtain extra protein to develop eggs.

Some mosquito species overwinter as eggs that were laid by the previous generation of females in late summer. The eggs are usually submerged under ice and hatch in spring when water temperatures rise.

Other kinds of mosquitoes overwinter as adult females that mate in the fall, enter hibernation in animal burrows, hollow logs or basements and pass the winter in a state of torpor. In spring, when temperatures are above 50 °F, the females emerge from hibernation, feed on blood and lay the eggs that produce the next generation of adults.

A limited number of mosquitoes overwinter in the larval stage, often buried in the mud of freshwater swamps. When temperatures rise in spring, these mosquitoes begin feeding, complete their immature growth and eventually emerge as adults to continue their kind.

Male mosquitoes can only live 1-3 weeks. Females live much longer. Hibernating females may live as long as 5 months or more depending on the species and predator pressures.

Depending on the species and temperature conditions, the mosquito life cycle from egg to adult last 4 to 14 days.

WHY DON'T MOSQUITOES TRANSMIT HIV VIRUS?

Mosquitoes do not transmit the HIV virus that causes AIDS due a number of reasons:

Studies with HIV clearly show that the virus responsible for the AIDS infection is regarded as food to the mosquito and is digested along with the blood meal.

Mosquitoes do not ingest enough HIV particles to transmit AIDS by contamination. An AIDS-free individual would have to be bitten by 10 million mosquitoes that had begun feeding on an AIDS carrier to receive a single unit of HIV from contaminated mosquito mouthparts.

Most people have heard that mosquitoes regurgitate saliva before they feed, but are unaware that the food canal and salivary canal are separate passageways in the mosquito. The mosquito's feeding apparatus is an extremely complicated structure that is totally unlike the crude single-bore syringe. Unlike a syringe, the mosquito delivers salivary fluid through one passage and draws blood up another. As a result, the food canal is not flushed out like a used needle, and blood flow is always in one direction. The mechanics involved in mosquito feeding are totally unlike the mechanisms employed by the drug user's needles. In short, mosquitoes are not flying hypodermic needles and a mosquito that disgorges saliva into your body is not flushing out the remnants of its last blood meal.

11 INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT MOSQUITOES:

There are over 3500 identified species of mosquitoes throughout the world. Currently, there are 170 species in North America and about 50 species of mosquitoes are found in our area.

Mosquito fossils date back at least as far as 100 million years ago.

A female mosquito doesn’t actually bite, but it stabs by piercing its proboscis, which is a tubular appendage.

An adult female mosquito consumes about 0.000 017 ounce in a single blood meal.

Depending of the species, a mosquito wing beats from 300 to 600 times per second.

Male mosquitoes find female mosquitoes by listening to the sound of their wings beating. The males can actually identify the correct species by the pitch of the female’s wings.

Citronella does not repel mosquitoes through its smell. Mosquitoes dislike citronella because it irritates their feet.

Every year, mosquitoes are responsible causing almost two million human deaths worldwide. This by transmitting diseases such as the West Nile virus, malaria, and Dengue fever. Second to this is the tsetse fly, which kills about 66,000 people annually.

Female mosquitoes find someone to bite by: 1. chemical signals: mosquitoes can sense carbon dioxide and lactic acid up to 100 feet (36 meters) away. 2. By sight (movement): mosquitoes can locate their hosts when they are 30 feet away by detecting infrared radiation emitted by their host’s body temperature. 3. By thermal signals: mosquitoes have thermal/heat receptors on the tip of their antennae. At 10 feet away from the host, these sensors can detect the heat sources of warm-blooded animals, and pick up temperature changes as small as 0.1°ssC.